The discovery of a mummy at Chan Chan this month was not the stereotypical thriller of an archeologist dressed in khakis opening an ancient tomb after thousands of years being buried in the desert sands. Instead, a group of cleaning workers must have received the surprise of their lives when on a routine day they found a cardboard box tied-up with rope disposed at the side of the road, opened it up, and found an ancient mummy.

The discovery took place at Chan Chan, an archaeological complex built by the ancient Chímu culture and located 5 km outside the city of Trujillo in northern Peru. It is the largest pre-Columbian city in South America. (more…)

Forty primates were recently rescued from illegal trafficking in Lima. Among the forty animals were individuals of the black capuchin, white capuchin, achuni, chozna, choro, puffin, musmuqui, and maquisapa species. They temporarily were housed at the former Lima zoo before being transported to an animal reguge sanctuary in Loreto in the Amazon jungle.

The Regional Management Program of Forest Resources and Wildlife along with the non-profit Animal Defenders International (ADI) worked together to transport the 40 primates to the community of Padrecocha on the Nanay river in Loreto. (more…)

The Ministry of Culture has announced a national mural contest after the ministry’s director, Diana Álvarez – Calderón, commented that the erasing of murals in downtown Lima was “marginal.”

On March 13th Luis Castañeda, the mayor of Lima, sited a UNESCO ordinance to paint over all the murals of downtown Lima. The pieces was ordered by his predecessor and political rival Susana Villarán for an art festival. Most public reaction was negative, especially from the artist community that decried such a blatant destruction of public art. UNESCO responded to the incident by clarifying that the1996 ordinance cited by Mayor Castañeda gave no instruction to paint-over murals (more…)

This week a Peruvian women who claimed to be one of the oldest living people in the world, if not the oldest, passed away. Filomena Taipe Mendoza of the Acoria district in Huancavelica died at the age of 117 years on April 5th, 2015 at 2:00 pm.

Born on December 20th, 1897 in the town of Pucuto, Filomena Taipe Mendoza spent all of her life in her tiny village where she was widowed at a young age. According to different reports, she raised either 9 or 12 children, has 25 grandchildren, and 35 great-grandchildren. Of the 9 or 12 children, only 3 survive and were in communication with her up to the time of her death. (more…)

As a country that lives with a high degree of cultural and natural diversity, Peru struggles with a number of unique problems that other countries do not even have to contemplate. What do you do, for example, when a tribe of indigenous people from the Amazon Jungle in the stages of initial contact, and highly susceptible to diseases, leave their home territory and move into other communities?

Peru passed a law in 2006 called the Law for the Protection of Indigenous or Native Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact Situations. The intent of the law is to help protect people, mostly in the Amazon Rainforest (more…)

A number of tombs have been discovered in Peru´s Cotahuasi Valley with up to 40 mummies each. So far around 170 mummies have been excavated from the site by archaeologists.

The tombs are located on a hillside in the Cotahuasi valley in Arequipa Department in Southern Peru. In a newly published book about the area (Tenahaha and the Wari State: A View of the Middle Horizon from the Cotahuasi Valley) archaeologist Justin Jennings writes: “The dead, likely numbering in the low thousands, towered over the living”.(more…)

This weekend on 11th April, people from all over the San Cristobal district of Peru’s Southern Moquegua region will gather in the community of Sijuaya to celebrate the annual Charango festival (Sarawja – charango de oro). In the local Aymara language Sarawya means “I’m leaving”. Given this name because the festival takes place after carnival celebrations, it is like a closing ceremony bringing together all the families from the communities.

The Charango is a traditional Andean stringed instrument. It originated in Quechua and Aymara communities in post Columbian times and was most likely based on the vihuela brought (more…)

Findings were published in the journal ZooKeys of 3 new species of lizards that have been discovered in the Andean cloud forest of Peru and Ecuador. The discovery is impressive because at around 5 inches long (not including the tail) they are some of the largest and most colorful in the South American forests. They were found in a section of the, 1,542,644 square kilometer, Tropical Andes hotspot, in western South America. That these species are still being discovered is testament to the huge diversity in the area.

The Tropical Andes hotspot is one of the richest and most diverse areas on earth (more…)

Tour Machu Picchu from your own home using google Street view? This is actually possible now. The famous street view cameras (this time carried as backpacks instead of on google vans) have been permitted to enter the amazing site of Machu Picchu. You will be able to see the buildings architecture, design and the incredible view.

Fernando Astete, the director of Machu Picchu National Park, commented that ¨now many more admirers of our culture can enjoy the secrets of Machu Picchu with excellent panoramic images that have been taken by the operators from Google¨ (more…)

Qhapaq Ñan – Main Andean Road. All the way from Colombia to Chile through Ecuador Peru and Bolivia the Qhapaq Ñan is the Main Andean Road the ancient backbone of the Inca Empire. The 23,000km network of road was built over 2,000 years.

It was in 2001 when Peru first put forward the proposal for the road system to be added to the UNESCO world heritage list, the governments of Argentina and Chile subsequently joined the initiative the purpose of which is to recognize the rich culture of the Inca Empire and to contribute to the social and economic development of the area. (more…)

Lots of Peruvians and tourists visit the Andean town of Ayacucho to celebrate Holy week. Ayacucho is famous for putting on an extra special celebration for the week of Semana Santa by carpeting the streets with flower art. There are massive street processions with the icons of saints being carried over the carpets of flowers. The festivities reach their peak with a candlelit procession followed by a firework display on the Saturday before Easter but besides this there are also many other things going on like art shows concerts and even cookery competitions.